UFO THE EDITOR ON TUR "S1'RONATOR." . 1
Snt,—The facts as to the Khalifate are briefly as follows. It is an article of faith throughout the world of Islam that the Khalif must belong to the Arab tribe of the Koreish,- Mohammed's tribe. The text-book of the University of Cairo —the principal seat of learning in the world of Islam— says :—
"It is a condition that the Khalif be of the Koreish tribe. All accept this except the Kawarij [sect] and some of the Mutazilites [a freethinking sect]. We all say with the Prophet :
' Let the Khalif be of the Koreish.' It is therefore unquestionably established that the Khalif must be of the Koreish."
The Delhi text-book of Islamic law says :— " It is a necessary condition that the Khalif be of the Koreish tribe."
Ibn Klialdun, Grand Mufti of Egypt—the most erudite doctor and one of the most authoritative names in the realm of Islam—declares that "it is the unanimous opinion of the ancient doctors" that the Khalif must be of the Koreish tribe, and he quotes from the Saha the following saying of the Prophet: "Let not the authority depart out of the Koreish tribe" (Proleg., pp. 387-97).
The Shiytes insist, in addition, that the Khalif must be a de- scendant of the Prophet. But all orthodox Mohammedans believe that the Khalif must be an Arab of the Prophet's tribe.
The Khalif was originally intended to be the spiritual and temporal ruler of the whole Mohammedan world. That dream was shattered by the battle of Zab in A.D. 750, when the Omeyyad army was destroyed by the Abbasid° chief, who pro- claimed himself Khalif. From that time there has been no single Khalif acknowledged as such throughout the Mohammedan world.
But Islam is primarily a religion, and its civil institutions and laws all rest on the Sacred Law for their basis and sanction. While the Khalif was at once temporal and spiritual ruler his seal impressed a spiritual character on all his temporal acts. But when Mohammedan dynasties were founded in different parts of the world by conquerors who were not even Arabs, still less of the Koreish tribe, it became necessary that the political acts of the ruler should be sanctioned by an authorised organ of the spiritual power. This authoritative organ in Turkey is the Sheikh-ul-Islam, without whose fetva no political act of the Sultan has the slightest validity in the eyes of orthodox Mohammedans. The Sultan cannot make or accept a declaration of war without a fetva from the Sheikh-ul-Islam. The present Sultan's two predecessors could not have been deposed without the Sheikh's fetva.
The temporal power of the Khalifs was destroyed in A.D. 1258 by Houlakon Khan, son of Genghis Khan. The s:)i ritual attributes of the office survived nominally till 1516 in the descendants of the Fatimito Khalifs resident in Egypt. The Khalifate was then practically abolished by the Ottoman con- queror of Egypt, Selim I., and has been in abeyance ever since. It was not in the power of the puppet who then claimed the title to give it "by cession" or otherwise to Selim or any other claimant. For not only must the Khalif be of the Koreish tribe, but he must be freely elected in addition. If the Sultan were Khalif he would need no Sheikh-ul-Islam to give spiritual sanction to his legislative and political acts. But every Sultan since Selim has been obliged to have a Sheikh-ul-Islam. Moreover, the Ottoman Sultans have never been acknowledged as Khalifs by any other Mohammedan rulers : not by the Great Moguls, or Shahs of Persia, or Amirs of Afghanistan, or in any of the khanates of Central Asia. And to this day the Emperor of Morocco styles the Ottoman Sultan contemptuously "the Sheikh of Stamboul "; and the Arabs have never acknowledged him as Khalif, and have always been in veiled rebellion. The "freedom" which the law of Islam gives to non-Mussulmans is, in fact, a cruel slavery. They pay a yearly tax for permission to live. Their evidence is not allowed against a Muslim in criminal cases. They are not allowed to possess arms. They cannot serve in the Army or Navy, yet every Christian is forced from the time he is three months old to pay for a substitute. And it is death for a Mohammedan to change his religion, and for a Christian to convert him. In a word, Christians can never become citizens of a Mussulman State, and are in fact treated as outlaws.
I was quite right about the law of coercion in regard to the Sultan, but cannot trespass on your space to prove my accuracy. The incident given by your correspondent in the Spectator of December 16th is irrelevant.
—I am, Sir, 8z.c., MALCOLAI MACCOLL.
[We have allowed Canon MacColl his right of reply, but cannot continue this controversy.—ED. Spectator.]
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